washington right now, can president obama and republicans reach a long-term agreement on reducing the deficit? >> the answer, different depending on which republican you ask. house speaker john boehner doesn't sound very hopeful. he's standing firm against the idea of increasing tax rates, increasing tax revenue. >> the president believes that we have to have more taxes from the american people. we're not going to get very far. if the president doesn't believe that the goal ought to be to balance the budget over the next ten years, i'm not sure we're going to get very far. and this is the whole issue. we have a spending problem here in washington, and it's time to solve the problem. >> we're hearing different things coming from various republicans, including senator bob corker. he's a republican of tennessee. he says he's optimistic about the possibility of what's called a grand bargain, and he's open to the idea of raising tax revenues to cut the deal under certain circumstances. senator corker's joining us now from capitol hill. senator, thanks very much for coming in. >> good to be with yo